NAME

       perlfaq2 - Obtaining and Learning about Perl

VERSION

       version 5.20210520

DESCRIPTION

       This section of the FAQ answers questions about where to find source and documentation for Perl, support,
       and related matters.

   What machines support Perl? Where do I get it?
       The standard release of Perl (the one maintained by the Perl development team) is distributed only in
       source code form. You can find the latest releases at <http://www.cpan.org/src/>.

       Perl builds and runs on a bewildering number of platforms. Virtually all known and current Unix
       derivatives are supported (perl's native platform), as are other systems like VMS, DOS, OS/2, Windows,
       QNX, BeOS, OS X, MPE/iX and the Amiga.

       Binary distributions for some proprietary platforms can be found <http://www.cpan.org/ports/> directory.
       Because these are not part of the standard distribution, they may and in fact do differ from the base
       perl port in a variety of ways. You'll have to check their respective release notes to see just what the
       differences are. These differences can be either positive (e.g. extensions for the features of the
       particular platform that are not supported in the source release of perl) or negative (e.g. might be
       based upon a less current source release of perl).

   How can I get a binary version of Perl?
       See CPAN Ports <http://www.cpan.org/ports/>

   I don't have a C compiler. How can I build my own Perl interpreter?
       For Windows, use a binary version of Perl, Strawberry Perl <http://strawberryperl.com/> and ActivePerl
       <http://www.activestate.com/activeperl> come with a bundled C compiler.

       Otherwise if you really do want to build Perl, you need to get a binary version of "gcc" for your system
       first. Use a search engine to find out how to do this for your operating system.

   I copied the Perl binary from one machine to another, but scripts don't work.
       That's probably because you forgot libraries, or library paths differ.  You really should build the whole
       distribution on the machine it will eventually live on, and then type "make install". Most other
       approaches are doomed to failure.

       One simple way to check that things are in the right place is to print out the hard-coded @INC that perl
       looks through for libraries:

           % perl -le 'print for @INC'

       If this command lists any paths that don't exist on your system, then you may need to move the
       appropriate libraries to these locations, or create symbolic links, aliases, or shortcuts appropriately.
       @INC is also printed as part of the output of

           % perl -V

       You might also want to check out "How do I keep my own module/library directory?" in perlfaq8.

   I grabbed the sources and tried to compile but gdbm/dynamic loading/malloc/linking/... failed. How do I make
       it work?
       Read the INSTALL file, which is part of the source distribution.  It describes in detail how to cope with
       most idiosyncrasies that the "Configure" script can't work around for any given system or architecture.

   What modules and extensions are available for Perl? What is CPAN?
       CPAN stands for Comprehensive Perl Archive Network, a multi-gigabyte archive replicated on hundreds of
       machines all over the world. CPAN contains tens of thousands of modules and extensions, source code and
       documentation, designed for everything from commercial database interfaces to keyboard/screen control and
       running large web sites.

       You can search CPAN on <http://metacpan.org>.

       The master web site for CPAN is <http://www.cpan.org/>, <http://www.cpan.org/SITES.html> lists all
       mirrors.

       See the CPAN FAQ at <http://www.cpan.org/misc/cpan-faq.html> for answers to the most frequently asked
       questions about CPAN.

       The Task::Kensho module has a list of recommended modules which you should review as a good starting
       point.

   Where can I get information on Perl?
       •   <http://www.perl.org/>

       •   <http://perldoc.perl.org/>

       •   <http://learn.perl.org/>

       The  complete  Perl  documentation  is  available with the Perl distribution.  If you have Perl installed
       locally, you probably have the documentation installed as well: type "perldoc perl" in a terminal or view
       online <http://perldoc.perl.org/perl.html>.

       (Some operating system distributions may ship the documentation in a different package; for instance,  on
       Debian, you need to install the "perl-doc" package.)

       Many good books have been written about Perl--see the section later in perlfaq2 for more details.

   What is perl.com? Perl Mongers? pm.org? perl.org? cpan.org?
       Perl.com  <http://www.perl.com/> used to be part of the O'Reilly Network, a subsidiary of O'Reilly Media.
       Although it retains most of the original content from its O'Reilly Network, it is now hosted by The  Perl
       Foundation <http://www.perlfoundation.org/>.

       The  Perl  Foundation  is  an  advocacy  organization  for the Perl language which maintains the web site
       <http://www.perl.org/> as a general advocacy site for the Perl language. It uses the  domain  to  provide
       general  support  services  to the Perl community, including the hosting of mailing lists, web sites, and
       other services. There are also many other sub-domains for special topics like learning Perl and  jobs  in
       Perl, such as:

       •   <http://www.perl.org/>

       •   <http://learn.perl.org/>

       •   <http://jobs.perl.org/>

       •   <http://lists.perl.org/>

       Perl  Mongers <http://www.pm.org/> uses the pm.org domain for services related to local Perl user groups,
       including the hosting of mailing lists and web sites. See the Perl Mongers web site  <http://www.pm.org/>
       for more information about joining, starting, or requesting services for a Perl user group.

       CPAN,  or  the  Comprehensive  Perl  Archive  Network  <http://www.cpan.org/>, is a replicated, worldwide
       repository of Perl software.  See What is CPAN?.

   Where can I post questions?
       There  are  many  Perl  mailing   lists   for   various   topics,   specifically   the   beginners   list
       <http://lists.perl.org/list/beginners.html> may be of use.

       Other  places  to  ask  questions  are on the PerlMonks site <http://www.perlmonks.org/> or stackoverflow
       <http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/perl>.

   Perl Books
       There are many good books on Perl <http://www.perl.org/books/library.html>.

   Which magazines have Perl content?
       There's also $foo Magazin, a German magazine dedicated to Perl, at ( <http://www.foo-magazin.de>  ).  The
       Perl-Zeitung is another German-speaking magazine for Perl beginners (see <http://perl-zeitung.at.tf> ).

       Several Unix/Linux related magazines frequently include articles on Perl.

   Which Perl blogs should I read?
       Perl  News  <http://perlnews.org/>  covers  some  of  the  major  events  in  the Perl world, Perl Weekly
       <http://perlweekly.com/> is a weekly e-mail (and RSS feed) of hand-picked Perl articles.

       <http://blogs.perl.org/> hosts many Perl blogs, there  are  also  several  blog  aggregators:  Perlsphere
       <http://perlsphere.net/> and IronMan <http://ironman.enlightenedperl.org/> are two of them.

   What mailing lists are there for Perl?
       A comprehensive list of Perl-related mailing lists can be found at <http://lists.perl.org/>

   Where can I buy a commercial version of Perl?
       Perl  already  is  commercial  software:  it  has  a license that you can grab and carefully read to your
       manager. It is distributed in releases and comes in well-defined packages. There  is  a  very  large  and
       supportive user community and an extensive literature.

       If you still need commercial support ActiveState <http://www.activestate.com/activeperl> offers this.

   Where do I send bug reports?
       (contributed by brian d foy)

       First, ensure that you've found an actual bug. Second, ensure you've found an actual bug.

       If you've found a bug with the perl interpreter or one of the modules in the standard library (those that
       come    with    Perl),   you   can   submit   a   bug   report   to   the   GitHub   issue   tracker   at
       <https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues>.

       To determine if a module came with your version of Perl, you can install  and  use  the  Module::CoreList
       module.  It  has  the  information  about the modules (with their versions) included with each release of
       Perl.

       Every CPAN module has a bug tracker set up in RT, <http://rt.cpan.org>.  You can submit bugs to RT either
       through   its   web   interface   or   by   email.   To   email   a    bug    report,    send    it    to
       bug-<distribution-name>@rt.cpan.org  .  For example, if you wanted to report a bug in Business::ISBN, you
       could send a message to bug-Business-ISBN@rt.cpan.org .

       Some modules might have special reporting requirements, such as a GitHub or Google Code tracking  system,
       so you should check the module documentation too.

AUTHOR AND COPYRIGHT

       Copyright  (c)  1997-2010  Tom  Christiansen,  Nathan  Torkington, and other authors as noted. All rights
       reserved.

       This documentation is free; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

       Irrespective of its distribution, all code examples here are in the public domain. You are permitted  and
       encouraged to use this code and any derivatives thereof in your own programs for fun or for profit as you
       see fit. A simple comment in the code giving credit to the FAQ would be courteous but is not required.

perl v5.38.2                                       2025-04-08                                        PERLFAQ2(1)